


Kingdom Come

by TommysIdiosyncrasy



Series: The Mind's Silence [4]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Angst, Blindness, Emotional Manipulation, Hurt Merlin, Hurt No Comfort, M/M, Magic, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-12-30 13:59:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18316652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TommysIdiosyncrasy/pseuds/TommysIdiosyncrasy
Summary: Arriving in Camelot doesn't magically fix MerlinHe doesn't think anything can





	Kingdom Come

Merlin woke up. 

He could feel fingers trailing over his forehead and hear the low bubbling of liquids in the quiet room. He was sure he was awake, so when he opened his eyes to see nothing he was almost disappointed. The hands that had been touching him disappeared into the empty space and Merlin realized he was reclined on a bed, not a bedroll over the lumpy earth. 

“You’re awake.” A gruff voice said. Merlin twitched at the unfamiliar tone, surprised at the new person. Where were the knights? “I’ve been told about your condition. My name is Gaius, royal physician.” 

“Are we in Camelot?” He asked, recognizing the name. He winced at how rough his voice sounded. 

“Yes, you returned last night with the rest of the Knights. You’ve been in and out of consciousness with a worrying fever. Luckily, it broke this morning a little after dawn.” Merlin nodded, reaching up to touch something cold and wet on his forehead. Calloused fingers pushed his hands away, fixing the cloth in place and Gaius said to leave it. “Due to your circumstances, you’ll be remaining here until I can find some sort of cure.” 

His stomach dropped at that. They needed to find a cure, they needed to  _ fix _ Merlin. He wasn’t who he was supposed to be. 

The bed shifted as Gaius stood, his footsteps shuffling away. Merlin heard a door close and it was quiet. Dragging a hand across his face, Merlin found it hard to believe he was so sick so recently when he felt fine. A memory of the burning pain before he passed out slipped over him, making him shudder. 

Merlin figured it’d be best to get more sleep, so he made himself as comfortable as possible with the cloth on his forehead and the blanket tucked in around him. 

It felt like hours passed, where Merlin just sat there with his eyes drifting open and closed with no differentiation between the two. He rested, unable to fall asleep. To his surprise, the door swung open and he kept his eyes closed. 

Footsteps crept closer, it sounded like they were trying to be quiet. Merlin could feel his heart jump slightly, but he kept as still as possible. 

The silence pressed in on his eardrums and just when he thought he couldn’t take it anymore, the door swung shut and Merlin jumped in surprise. The room seemed empty.

  
  


The days passed sluggishly slow. 

In the mornings, Gaius would shuffle in to feed Merlin bitter tasting tonics and to mutter under his breath as they seemingly did nothing. Then, Merlin would spends hours alone in bed with nothing to do besides sleep and let his mind wonder. Sometimes, he’d wake to feel soft hands running down his cheeks or humming brightly as they shuffled around. They never stayed long, but Merlin liked those days. 

No one else visited him, not that he knew anyone besides the knights. Merlin felt mournful over the loss of their company, after the trip back to Camelot he’d thought they’d become friends. Seems he was mistaken.  

His dreams were in color. He found that more often than not, he could see as he slept the night away. Slumber usually held hours spent running through the forest, calling out for someone to hear or to come find him as he wound through the endless maze of green. Sometimes, he dreamt of a woman with long, ebony hair. She was beautiful and her eyes were alight with a fondness Merlin longed for. Those dreams were his favorite, but it was always a disappointment to open his eyes to bleak reality.

Merlin was losing his mind, spending lazy mornings that bled into boring afternoons that flowed into a dreadful evening of fitful sleep. He felt an acute need to be out and about, filling his days with something only slightly better than this nothing he was trapped in. 

Opening his eyes after one particularly alarming dream, Merlin started to see light.

_ See _ light. 

Scrambling to sit up, Merlin stared in wonder at a glowing trail along the floor. Rubbing harshly at his eyes, Merlin realized that he was indeed awake. Hope and relief flooded him until he felt lightheaded, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. 

He frowned, realizing that besides the light he couldn’t see much else at all. His legs were dark masses below him and the floor was a sea of inky black. He squinted at the doorway the light flowed down, softly leading a path out of Merlin’s prison and somewhere else. 

Cautiously setting his bare feet onto the illuminated ground, Merlin marveled at the lovely white color it was. Suddenly no longer caring for sitting down, Merlin got to his feet and began to follow giddily as the magic lead him down stairs cautiously and then onto smooth wood below his feet he couldn’t really see. Everything was still black and mostly formless, statues of armor looming from seemingly nowhere startling him as he scrambled by and tapestries fluttering in a cool breeze turning the hair along his neck upwards. But Merlin was more focused on this one thing he could so clearly see and follow, that his surroundings didn’t really register to him.

His feet slid along slick grass and sometimes the odd pebble, but Merlin didn’t stop. He needed to know why this one thing suddenly appeared. The idea that this really was all still a dream settled in his stomach like a rock, but he pushed it aside and press forward. 

Air prickled and burned down his throat and through his lungs, but still Merlin refused to stop. Cool sweat pooled in his hands and down his back, making him shiver. 

“Merlin.” He stumbled to a stop, turning slowly to peer at a dark figure standing stock still. Licking cracked lips, Merlin watched the figure for a long moment before unsticking his feet and quickly walking away.

Whispers and voices danced through his ears and the treetops, words jumbling up in an indecipherable mess. 

The dark figure reappeared from the mist surrounding his vision, but never moved when he looked. A cloaked figure without any kind of indication who might be under the dark shroud. 

Merlin’s knees were numb along with his fingers and face, yet somehow his feet kept moving. The edges of his pants grew damp and clung to the skin along his ankles, his arms bumping into branches or bushes that tug and pull at his sleeves. 

There were more calls of his name, but he didn’t pause this time. He could feel he was getting closer. He was almost there and he wasn’t willing to stop. Not when he could almost taste it. 

Merlin’s breath was punched out of him in a surprised gasp as the pathway abruptly ended on the edge of a small cliff, his toes hung over the edge, and Merlin was suddenly robbed of any semblance if sight he’d had. A cry of surprise and pain filled the air and a hush spread over the forest. Panting, Merlin strained to hear anything. 

Suddenly, slowlying lighting up at the bottom of the fall, Merlin saw the path continue for only a few feet and whatever it was he was looking for was there. Without a second thought Merlin stepped forwards and tumbled into a free fall. 

Rolling head over heels before sliding to a rough stop, Merlin shakily got to his feet after half falling, half rolling down the steep hill. Heart stuttering weakly in his chest, Merlin limped forwards towards the dark figure. It turned slowly and Merlin fell to his knees. 

There was nobody inside, only an empty shell. 

A woman with ebony hair appeared from behind the hollow cloak and crouched down in front of Merlin. She smiled, her deeply bagged eyes crinkling around the edges. A cool hand cupped his chin and he leaned forwards, not even daring to blink as he drank in every detail he could see.

The winkles along her forehead, the intense green of her eyes, the thin and faded color of her lips. 

“Merlin,” Morgana murmured, a warm smile on her face. “You came.”

Merlin’s eyes drifted shut as he fell asleep peacefully in her arms.  

**Author's Note:**

> the next story in this series will be the last one. this has been fun my bros


End file.
